Former islander Philip Leonard “Len” Skinner Jr., 65, died July 1 at his home in Martin County where he and his partner, former islander Robin Payne, moved in 2017.
Born on Feb. 7, 1960, in Lansing, Michigan, he was a son of Carol Spyker Skinner of Columbia, Kentucky, and the late Phillip Leonard Skinner.
“A reverence for wood,” as he says on his website lenskinner.com, informs all of his work, and on Ocracoke, he was known as a person of multiple practical and artistic abilities.
During his almost 20 years on Ocracoke, he provided the village with signs, illustrations and paintings, unique wood carvings and custom carpentry pieces that are scattered throughout island businesses, homes and Springer’s Point.
Among those are the Ocracoke School dolphin, which is inside the new building, the cover and inside illustrations of the Café Atlantic Cookbook and the sign for the Flying Melon Café.
One of his projects, done with Debbie Wells, was a large hand drawn map of Ocracoke that for years was sold in Books to Be Red.
As the former steward of Springer’s Point, he took care of the trails and made carvings out of several stumps along the way.
Some of his bird carvings are still available on Ocracoke in Dave O’Neal’s Down Point Decoy Shop, but in recent years, Len sold carvings on his webpage and Etsy.
In a 2019 Ocracoke Observer story, Rita Thiel wrote about his skill in allowing the wood to speak for itself with Skinner the liberator of their forms.
“Remnants of trees have a story to tell, an essence to share and people to inspire,” he said, whether they be young, strong chunks of oak or weathered, disguised cedar logs that have lain undisturbed for years.”
The fondest memories of his youth were the family’s self-sufficient farm in northern Michigan and of time spent in the backwoods, he says on his website.
“Right after high school I left home, to focus on living a turn-of-the-century lifestyle – building everything by-hand: log homes to using horse-drawn plows,” he said on his website.
Robin said that Len’s life in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Kentucky, before Ocracoke, was especially memorable as he homesteaded, helped rebuild several pre-Civil War log buildings, and made antique furniture reproductions using the tools of those earlier time periods.
“He liked to reminisce about going on horseback to Mountain Men rendezvous,” she said.
Len seemed to be more at home in the 19th century, relying on his hands to make things.
“I like the old style of craftsmanship,” he told Thiel. “I appreciate how people did things without power tools.”
He built three late 1800s-style cabins on the Martin County property: a 1,000-foot greenhouse, a windmill made from found parts and his own blacksmith shop, Robin said.
“He built a historically correct stone fireplace we cooked in during the winter,” she said.
Along with woodworking, Len was a wildlife rehabilitator for owls, fawns, raccoons, foxes, and countless opossums and squirrels, and Clovis the turkey buzzard.
He also was a beekeeper, Robin said.
“Every step I take on this property has his signature,” she said about their rural property.
In 2016, the couple tried to purchase 40 acres in Deadman Springs in Apache Creek, New Mexico, but were unsuccessful.
That property in the Gila Mountain range, on the west side of the Continental Divide Trail and Len were so connected, Robin said. She will take some of his ashes there.
In addition to his mother and Robin, Len is survived by his daughter Samara Skinner Spillane of Columbia, Kentucky, his sister, Valerie Skinner, as well as numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, and nieces and nephews.
A gathering to honor his life will be scheduled in late October in Martin County.
Godspeed Len on the wings of an owl.
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